DescriptionThis volume provides multi-layered analysis of the environmental impacts under the colonial rule. Presenting detailed case studies from across the Indian subcontinent, it discusses different aspects of Empire-environment encounters like imagination of environment; politics of natural resource management; irrigation and flood control projects; cultural negotiations; and forest and ecological changes. The essays explore the nature of global environmental transformations in the nineteenth century, complex and varied inter-colonial exchanges, techniques and technologies, and the institutionalization of various environmental imaginings. The volume documents the shifts in recent environmental history of the subcontinent. Examining key debates on the subject, it also underlines the need to revisit the role of British Empire as an apt conceptual template for the writing of global environmental history.This book will be of considerable interest to teachers, students, and scholars of ecological and environmental history particularly those concerned with modern India and the British Empire.

Features

Presents a multi-layered analysis of environmental impact

Detailed case studies from across Indian subcontinent

Editors are renowned environmental historians

Table of ContentsIntroduction by Deepak Kumar, Vinita Damodaran and Rohan D'SouzaPart I. Environmental Imaginations and EmpireChapter 1. The Wild Andamans: Island Imageries and Colonial Encounter by Aparna VaidikChapter 2. Walter Sherwill and the Visual Representation of Colonial Authority in Mid-nineteenth Century India by Daniel RycroftPart II. Making Natural Resources for EmpireChapter 3. Imperial Design: The Royal Indian Engineering College and Public Works in Colonial India by Christopher V. HillChapter 4. Redeeming Wood by Destroying the Forest: Shola, Plantations and Colonial Conservancy on the Nilgiris in the Nineteenth Century by Deborah SuttonChapter 5. Making Garden, Erasing Jungle: The Tea Enterprise in Colonial Assam by Jayeeta SharmaPart III. Impacts and Negotiations: The Empire's Ecological FootprintsChapter 6. Taming Liquid Gold' and Dam Technology: A Study of the Godavari Anicut by B. Eswara RaoChapter 7. Flood Control in North Bihar: An Environmental History from the 'Ground-Level' (1850-1954) by Praveen SinghPart IV. Cultures Reshape EmpireChapter 8. The Environmental and Cultural Legacy of Colonial Hydraulic Projects in Two South Indian Deltas by Peter L. SchmitthennerChapter 9. Collaboration and Conflict: Environmental Legacies and the Ho of Kolhan (1700 - 1918) by Asoka Kumar SenPart V.The Long Ecological Shadows of EmpireChapter 10. Forests at the Edge of Empire: The Case of Nepal by D. G. DonovanChapter 11. Forest Policy and Ecological Change in Hyderabad State (1867-1948) by S. Abdul Thaha

About the Author(s)Deepak Kumar is Professor at the Zakir Husain Centre for Educational Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University. Vinita Damodaran is Senior Lecturer at the University of Sussex. Rohan D'Souza is Assistant Professor at the Centre for Studies in Science Policy, Jawaharlal Nehru University.